


End or a Beginning?

by mgsmurf



Series: Season 8 extra stuff [3]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Possible outcomes, Spoilers for S8 E5, post 8x05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 10:51:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18871714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mgsmurf/pseuds/mgsmurf
Summary: Brienne's boots crunch through the rubble of Kings Landing. The Red Keep, she knows sadly, that is where she can find Jaime. She came to find him and fight for him, instead she will be finding a way to have a future with him. Possible outcome if Jaime has survived Ep 5.





	1. The Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Who knows what tomorrow's episode will bring and doubt this will be anywhere close. But what is fanfic for but hopes of what might happen? It has been a great 3 years writing GoT JB fic and getting to guess the endings ahead. Crediting JBO for much of this plot.

Brienne's boots crunch through the rubble. The Red Keep, she knows sadly, that is where she can find Jaime. It was easy in the still chaos that has befallen the city to reach what remained of the once grand castle. Whole towers have collapsed or fallen into the sea below. Her heart aches at the tragedy of it all, not just the burned buildings, worse the burned men, women and children, even after the city surrendered. Ash falls and coats everything as thick as northern winter snow. What will remain of her if she finds Jaime dead? How will she continue on? Best not to think of such now. 

Perhaps she should have stayed in the north, where it's safe. But, Jaime was correct, she does not stand down from a fight. Brienne knows how happy Jaime was with her if not with Winterfell, and she does not mean to let that happiness escape her without a fight. 

Poodrick has found a few northern troops he knows and went off to search through the wreckage with them, hoping for breathing bodies, assuming for more dead. Ser Davos strolls along behind her, his shorter legs not quite keeping up. She might wonder why he cares of the man once called Kingslayer, but facing death has bonded them all, and wishing for life after is impossible to prevent. 

The wide courtyard is eerily empty of life and movement. Sunlight spills through a damaged roof of the great hall and throne room beyond. Brienne means to mount the stairs upwards. In truth she spent only a fleeting time in the Red Keep and knows not really where Cersei's quarters might be. 

“No.” Davos reaches out and grabs her arm, she feels the stubs of his shortened fingers. Hard to forget this man was once her enemy. “Down,” he states before letting go, grabbing a torch and proceeding before her. 

Brienne does not question, just follows him down curving stairs. The walls have crumbled and in places they must pause to shove aside great piles of stone. Soon both are covered in red dust. Davos curses quietly under his breath, accent thick with Flea Bottom still. Finally they break through to a clear flight of stairs down. The castle creaks above them. They turn a corner... and nothing but a drop looms before them, down a good story or more. If Jaime is really here, somewhere in this rubble. She shoves the thought aside. 

Behind her Davos secures a rope he has slung over his shoulder to the most sturdy structure he can find. He tosses the rest down. “Best if I go,” he says. He does weight a stone of more less than her. 

Brienne takes the rope and gives it a good tug. She shakes her head. “No.” Whatever pain is in her eyes stops his protest. 

He tightens his lips, nods. “Down and to the left.” He points to indicate. 

The rope holds to lower her, but barely. Near darkness fills below. She crawls and scrambles over and around the rocks, until her hand finds something smooth, cold. Brienne backs up a bit, cocks her head. In the light filtering from above she sees the large eye sockets and then sharp teeth of a dragon. Her heart pounds, knowing now the terror of such a thing, even if this one has been dead for hundreds of years. Something glistens beside the skull, something gold beneath the red dust. 

Brienne scrambles forward, narrows her eyes to see better. Her hands grope in the darkness. She touches flesh, cold and still. Her heart speeds up and her stomach rises into her chest. But this body is too slender and soft, not possibly Jaime's. The light from above flickers and she gets a fleeting look at what remains of Cersei Lannister's face. Her hair now short, she wears black and silver, yet there is no mistaking the high cheekbones, the pretty lips, the open green eyes. 

Jaime must be near. Brienne climbs over Cersei and squeezes inside the dragon skull. The queen clutches Jaime's gold hand in death. The space is tight as she squeezes in beside Jaime. She can barely make out the red leather of his coat, his face a mess of red dust and darker blood. Tears cloud Brienne's vision, she tries to quiet the sob growing in her throat. Then there's a cough, not hers. “Jaime?”Brienne lays a gentle hand on Jaime's chest, feels the slow rise and fall of it, the warmth of him. “Jaime.” He's alive, impossibly so. 

He stirs and his eyes drift open. “Brienne?” 

“Don't talk. Don't move.” Brienne runs hands gently over him, trying to access how injured he might be. She feels the wet stickiness of congealed blood. The dragon skull has spared him most of what must have fallen from above. 

“Brienne? How?” He blinks up at her, raises his hand. 

“Shh.” How was she getting him out of here? He seems to have no majorly broken bones and he has a good color so could not have lost so much blood. 

He gives his head a shake. “I have to...” A tear clears a muddy path down the side of his face. “I had to go, but... I hurt you, I said such hateful things to you.”

“You told me nothing I did not already know.” She tightens her lips. “It matters not now.”

He shakes his head again, his hand grips her tighter. “But it does. She carries my child. I should have told you, but I told myself I left it when I left her behind, and she had likely already claimed Euron the father, but...”

Brienne's eyes widen. Perhaps she should have guessed there was more to things than going back to Cersei, for if what little he has told her is true was a hateful woman who never treated Jaime well. But time is short and she has none to spare for thoughts of why he would hold such truth from her, for her thoughts on him having made another child with Cersei.

“It matters not now,” she barely manages the words in her suddenly dry throat.

“She's dead?” He blinks up at her, knowing she will answer with truth. 

“Yes.” Brienne nods, frowns. Whatever she thought of Cersei, she was Jaime's sister and lover and he had given her the better parts of his life. 

Jaime swallows, sighs, looks away to the darkness of the skull above. Brienne almost apologizes, not that it was her doing that caused Cersei's death. She terrorized a vengeful woman with command of a dragon, and it cost her life and many more in the city. 

“She was my sister,” Jaime finally says. “I couldn't leave her, much as I might hate who I was with her, I...”

“I know.” Brienne sighs and smiles down at him. “Shh. Save your strength for getting out of here. You can tell me all the rest later.” Oh, how she hopes there will be a later. 

Ever so gently she starts to back out of beneath the skull and pull Jaime with her. Cersei's grip on his gold hand has hardened in death and Brienne has to reach over him and undo the leather. Then, she can slowly pull him out from beneath the skull. 

He moans a bit as she jostles him out into the open. “I love you.”

Brienne lets out a sigh. “I know. I love you as well. Now quiet.” She stands and means to go get Davos' help from above, when the smuggler knight appears torch in hand. 

“Thought I mighta heard voices below,” Davos says. “'Sides the quicker exit is likely down here.”

“The way is blocked.” Jaime has pushed himself to half slumped against the side of the dragon skull. He looks half dead, but Brienne has seen him worse before. 

Davos hands Jaime a flask of water. “See what we can do 'bout that.” He jesters his head further into the rubble. Brienne follows Davos. There are piles and piles of bricks. “This one I think.” Davos points at an archway filled with a landslide of rubble. 

“Leads to where?” Brienne asks, although she follows Davos' actions and begins to clear armfuls of bricks.

“To a beach and a dinghy and hopefully to someone who can patch him up.” Davos gives a grunt as he clears the way beside her. 

They work as fast as they can. The air is dusty and stifling down here. They take turns returning to Jaime. Perhaps the hope of rescue has improved his mood and condition. They use strips from his ruined shirt and their own to stanch his bleeding. He seems largely numb to the fact that Cersei and their babe are dead, although often times Brienne finds Jaime's thoughts hard to read. 

It seems forever when they finally see light through the fallen brick. They shove and kick aside the last of the rubble to find a tunnel ahead. 

“I'll go see about the boat,” Davos says. 

Brienne returns to Jaime. “Can you walk?” She gives him the last of the water flask. 

He sighs. “Perhaps with help.” 

She pulls him to his feet. He stumbles against the dragon skull and pauses there a moment to catch his breath. She waits until he nods to continue. She wraps her arm around his right side, his left arm drapes over her broad shoulders and gripes her jacket. Perhaps it is a good thing she's such a large woman, just a bit larger than Jaime himself. He rests most of his weight on her as his feet stumble towards the tunnel and then through. 

Davos meets up with them as they hit daylight and the sands of a small beach. “That your work with Euron Greyjoy?” He grabs Jaime's other side and together they carry Jaime the rest of the way to the small dinghy. 

“Yes.” Jaime sounds out of breath, exhausted. 

“Don't be dyin' on us just yet, Ser Jaime,” Davos says. 

Jaime gives a small smile at that, perhaps at being called by his name and title, or just at still being alive. Either way he nods to the smuggler knight. 

Davos cocks his head, looks at Jaime and then back over his shoulder at the dead Euron up the shore. “I have an idea.”

“They know I'm here,” Jaime says. “They'll want to see a body.” 

“Off with his jacket.” Davos bends down to Jaime and between the three of them they gently remove Jaime's red leather jacket . Brienne replaces and tightens all the strips they've used for his stab wounds and cuts. 

When Davos also removes Euron's jacket, Brienne realizes what he means to do. Jaime and Euron are roughly the same build and height with similar coloring and hair. If one could not recognize Euron's face, he could fill in for Jaime. 

“We'll have to take his hand off,” Davos says, raising Euron's right hand. 

Brienne unsheathes her sword and knows exactly where to cut. It seems forever ago that similar happened to Jaime. The first step in becoming a new man. Would they complete the last today?

“Will you be okay for a moment here?” Brienne tucks Euron's jacket around Jaime. He blinks his eyes, tired, but nods. 

Davos has already thrown away Euron's hand to the waves. He takes a rock and bashes in the pirate's face. Standing he cocks his head, silently asks what Brienne thinks. It is likely good enough if no one looks too close. If there are doubts, Brienne will just have to make sure Jaime is elsewhere and hidden beforehand. She nods. 

Together her and Davos repeat the path back beneath the Red Keep with the dead weight of Euron between them. They position the body, arm attached to Jaime's gold hand. Brienne wonders if Jaime will miss it, his final link to Cersei, a final attempt to still be the man he once was. They pile bricks such that it seems they fell upon Euron -- now Jaime's body -- and killed him. 

“I'll seal that back up.” Davos waves a hand at the escape tunnel they opened. He wipes away sweat from his forehead and streaks red mud across his face. “Then go back the way we came in.”

Brienne tightens her hand on Oathkeeper. Queen Daenerys just burned a city, with its populace inside. She knows not what Jon Snow means to do about the Queen's attack after the city's surrender. Either way what they did is treason. It could get them all killed, burned alive the same as Lord Tarly and his son. “Are you sure? What does he mean to you?” This man the realm still calls Kingslayer. 

“He kept his word and fought against the dead.” Davos sighs. “He deserves better than being found and burned alive, whatever his past with the Targaryens.” The old smuggler shrugs. “Maybe I've just seen my share of worthless and uncaring lords, and the Kingslayer's proven to me he's not one.”

“That dinghy's purposely small, better for goin' unnoticed,” Davos continues. “Out of Blackwater bay, turn south at Massey's Hook and it will at least get you to Tarth. Assumin' you know enough of watercraft to manage.”

“I was born on an island.” Brienne tightens her lips, nods. “I am more than able.” She clasps his shoulder. “Thank you, Ser Davos.” Her breath catches, this man is giving her a future, her and Jaime a future.

“Just make sure you're not caught.” Davos moves back to the rope. “And if you are, don't mention me.” He calls the last over his shoulder, with one last wink and nod. 

“Done.” Brienne nods. She steadies herself and makes her way back to Jaime. 

He's fallen asleep, yet stirs when she checks him over. She dislikes his clammy skin and pallor. Getting him to help speeds her rowing. In a small dinghy, the burned city of Kings Landing behind, the wide ocean ahead, Brienne hopes she goes towards a future. At some point, as night begins to darken the sky and she can almost see Tarth upon the horizon, Jaime's eyes drift open. 

“I didn't kiss her,” he whispers. “I didn't go to her as a lover, and she didn't ask my aid escaping as one.”

Brienne wants to shh him as before, yet wants to hear his words too. Her chin wobbles and her tired arms slip, the oars jerking.

“Where are we?” Jaime tries to turn his head behind to see their direction. 

“We're almost to Tarth.”

“Tarth?” His brow furrows. “I can't ask that of you.”

“Where else can I go and trust our safety.” Her voice cracks. What will her father think of her return, of Jaime? “Besides,” she pauses, shakes her head, “I will not lose you. You are worth losing everything for.”

“I went south for your safety, for Tyrion's.” Jaime swallows, blinks back tears. “Cersei is... was a hateful woman and if she knew what my true and full feelings for you are she would have stopped at nothing to have had you killed.” He frowns. “But faced with her possible death, once Daenerys did not stop and the city started to burn... I couldn't let her die.” 

Brienne can see the pain of those choices on his face. “She was your sister.”

“She was.” He nods. “Do you know how you mean to do this? Hide me away?”

Brienne tilts her head, blinks, swallows. 

“You're a horrible liar,” he says. “Mayhaps we should concoct a story before you go honestly proclaiming to have brought the injured and presumed dead Kingslayer home.”

She hates that Jaime knows how to do this. He likely already has a plan, a lie to tell. Yet, there is truth and wisdom in his words. She nods. “Very well.”


	2. Spring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A possible future of what might happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure this is much happier and sappier than we are likely to get. And we may get nothing at all. But, here is my take on what might be for Jaime and Brienne if he does live.

Spring has never bloomed so warm and full of hope. Perhaps her father believes the tale of a crippled hedgeknight with an honorable heart who rescued her. More likely her father knows the truth yet saw how much Jaime loves her, how much she loves him, and can not deny her the one thing she desires more than any other. 

Brienne leans back and rests a hand on her swollen belly. Jaime sits down beside her, pulling her from her thoughts. “Lovely day,” he says. Wordlessly he hands over a napkin full of rolls and cheese. 

She gives him a harsh look. Oh, how he has mocked her about how hungry she always is and can eat just about anytime. Not that it isn't his babes -- for the midwife claims Brienne carries twins -- who bring on her ravishment. From the kicking and fighting within her she believes it. Twins, it still scares her, scares her because of her mother's death in birthing her twin sisters, but also for the connection twins may hold to each other.

Jaime lays his hand upon her belly and just that touch soothes the babes back to stillness. He smiles over at her, happy. He will be a good father, and she hopes she will be as good a mother as he claims. 

Mostly they have left the politics of Westeros, the fate of the dragon queen and Jon Snow behind them. Brienne, of course, keeps in touch via raven with Lady Sansa and the rest of the Starks. Cersei is still there in Jaime's thoughts from time to time, but she no longer hangs between them, instead she is a part of Jaime Lannister's past, a past he left behind in Kings Landing with his lion armor and golden hand. 

“It is a lovely day,” she finally answers. The seas around Tarth glimmers like blue sapphires. She has forgotten how much she missed this while gone, and it's good to finally be home, better yet to be in a place she loves with a man she loves and hopefully has a long future ahead.

Jaime leans forward, bends up his knees and rests his crossed arms upon them. A large scar still crosses his forehead and the stab wounds will always be with him along with memories of being buried alive. Gray has spread more in his short cut hair and his thin beard. His right arm is only the stump as he has made no request for a replacement hand. He wears a simple brown leather tunic, a common look for now a common man. He looks worn, yet finally at peace. In the bright spring sun she would claim him still an aged lion, handsome in a way normal men are not. He would laugh at such, tell her his golden lion days are done, tell her the last of that man died beneath the Red Keep with his twin.

He turns to her, furrows his brow, “What good ser are you thinking?”

Brienne can't suppress her chuckle, she feels nothing like a knight right now. Instead she feel huge and graceless and womanly. “You're gorgeous,” she answers. 

He shakes his head and scoffs. “You are the gorgeous one, my love.” It will never get old how he looks at her as if she were the most beautiful lady in the realm. 

She turns away and feels the blush creep up her cheeks. His hand is on her cheek. He leans nearer and raises her head to give her a soft kiss. Jaime rests his forehead on her own. He says not that he loves her, but she knows he does, knows how deeply he feels for her and the coming babes. 

“We have meetings today,” he says as he finally pulls away. 

Brienne nods and sighs. “Yes.” Tarth is a small island but always there is something to manage, someone to meet with, and more and more she and Jaime take over for her father. Tarth is her island, Jaime has always been clear on that. Someday it will be her who is the Evenstar. Yet, he was once groomed to be Lord of Casterly Rock and he is a good companion when she fills in as the Evenstar. 

Jaime stands and she allows him to help her back to her feet. Life is simple and happy. It is not something she thought she would ever get and yet something she did not realize how much she always craved.

**Author's Note:**

> Yep the Euron replaces dead Jaime is completely from JBO, hopefully I did it justice. The knowledge of just how close Tarth is to King Landing comes from the wonderful "End Game" series by Lady_in_Red.


End file.
